Ellie Goulding has shared her rousing new single ‘Black Prada Dress’, which she said looked to explore the kind of freedom felt “in the ease of not knowing”.
The singer is set to release her sixth studio album ‘I Know Too Much’ on September 4, with the ten-track record following on from 2023’s UK Number One ‘Higher Than Heaven’. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.
On Friday (June 5), the pop singer shared ‘Black Prada Dress’, the lead single from the forthcoming LP, which she had debuted during her slot at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Sunderland last month, and also performed during a stop on Later… with Jools Holland to Sunday night (June 7).
Described in a press release as a “self-aware portrait of the fractured selves we construct to survive”, the track was written by Goulding and produced by the album’s executive producer, Jack Rochon, who she discovered on TikTok while he was still relatively unknown.
Speaking about the track, Goulding said it “sets the tone” for her upcoming record. “The album came from the idea that maybe we can know too much,” she explained. “There is a certain kind of freedom in the ease of not knowing.”
“This album is a collection of songs that represent a crossroads in my life where I realized what the freedom of not knowing has gifted me in the past, yet a time when I am at the precipice of understanding the true power in knowing,” she continued.
“Through the chaos of this great change, I went to my comfort zone and found my refuge in the studio. My initial instinct was I didn’t know where it was all going, but I just knew I needed to be in the studio. Writing a song has always been my best form of therapy.”
Speaking to NME late last year about her upcoming fresh material, Goulding said: “This is probably the most honest I’ve been in my lyrics. I don’t have anyone to answer to. In certain situations, you’re trying to please someone, but for the first time ever, I don’t feel like I have to do that. I’m just making music that I love.
“It’s a really liberating feeling I have at the moment. The songs aren’t too on the nose or mainstream, but they’re also not too unusual. It’s all just really freeing and different.”
She also told us: “Back before I signed a record deal, I was just writing songs, letting them come out naturally and not thinking too much.
“To be honest though, I still really have nothing to lose because I’m always doing projects that indulge me, like classical music, electronic, and dance, plus I still get to write pop songs that are really appealing to me.”
In 2025, Goulding dropped the empowering single ‘Destiny’, and while speaking to NME, reflected on how it had been inspired by the heartbreak and lingering questions that arose in the wake of her divorce, explaining: “It was a marriage, not just a relationship. I didn’t know what else to do other than make music.
“This was the first time I’d heard a track in this era of my life that seemed to just spell out acceptance and surrender of what had happened, rather than indulging myself in a really sad song that would’ve just continued to break me.”
At the start of this year, Goulding celebrated being honoured with an MBE by sharing praise for the women working on climate protection.
NME gave ‘Higher Than Heaven’ a four-star review, noting that it “may not be strictly personal, but it definitely sounds like an album crafted with care, skill and no small amount of flair”.
In 2024, Goulding reunited with Calvin Harris for another collaborative track, ‘Free’, which followed the pair’s chart-topping hit ‘Miracle’ from the previous year.